Thursday, February 7, 2008

Port A

I was a little worried about how things were going to go here, but today I'm feeling better about it. When we pulled in on Tuesday, the wind was blowing hard and it continued on into the evening and even after we went to bed. I started putting two-and-two together (at least I thought I did) and I came up with this: It's a barrier island, meaning it makes things nice and cozy for the folks across the bay. There weren't very many hotels or RV's along the road coming in, and we drove most of the length of the island. AND our picnic table and benches are made of concrete (so they won't blow away). There's also a little enclosure for our barbecue, presumably to protect it from the wind. I started thinking we had made a terrible mistake in paying for a month up front (no refunds).

But yesterday, the wind died down to what I would call "breezy." It was still chilly. It didn't get above 58 degrees all day. Some folks walked by and asked Mike about the truck. I talked some with the woman, who really didn't like traveling. They actually own their spot here, and I was trying to figure out why someone would buy into this place if they didn't like traveling. I didn't figure that one out yet. But I asked her about the wind, and she made it sound like the wind blew all the time.

This morning, we woke up to no wind and the temperature is already above 70 degrees at 10:00 a.m. Now that's more like it. I think it's going to be okay. Mike had checked the forecast the first evening, and so far, it's been right on. It should be nice for the next week or two if you can trust an extended forecast.

We drove into town yesterday, which is a typical beach town. It reminded us of Hawaii. There is a grocery store on the island, which is rather strange. It had some things that seemed quite unusual for a non-specialty kind of grocery, but then some of the stuff you'd expect to see wasn't there. We picked up some frozen margarita mix. Mike is trying to perfect his margaritas. This stuff was pretty good. The can gives you instructions for using the whole can; but we can't do that because we don't have a container (or a refrigerator) large enough. So he turned the instructions into the "1-part this and 2-parts that" kind of instructions and just used a few ounces of the frozen mix. They turned out great. Not too sugary (as those mixes tend to be) and not too tart. We'd been using fresh limes, but to get enough juice from fresh limes was pretty expensive. Have you priced limes lately? Even here, where citrus is grown, they are pretty expensive.

So that's about everything of note that we've done since we got here: perfecting our margaritas. Today it will actually be warm enough to sit by the pool or walk on the beach, and I figure the warmer it is, the better the margaritas will taste. Oh yes, and here's a tip: If you want a really good margarita, the "Perfect Margarita" at Applebee's is pretty darned good. We've found Applebee's all across the country.

Oh yes. I almost forgot. We drove into a neighborhood that is built so that all of the houses have some of the marina in their back yards--and, of course, everybody has a boat. Very expensive, I'm sure. If you ever watch CSI Miami, then you'll know what I'm talking about when I say the houses looked like that. But to get back to the neighborhood we drove through, all of the houses were constructed to make it possible to bring down aluminum shutters over the windows--to protect against hurricanes. Even our spot in this RV park has a "hurricane proof" enclosure so that people who own the spot have a place to store things while they are away. Hurricanes are obviously a big deal around here. (That would explain the concrete table and benches at our site.) We imagine Corpus Christi has a pretty cushy deal hiding behind the barrier islands, but that is no doubt the reason there isn't too much built up around here.

We heard about the tornadoes east of us on the news last night. I'm glad we've been such slow pokes getting across country because we could very well have been there. So I guess that's it on the weather disaster channel--that would be me. Things are going okay so far. Oh yes and Big Hug to Larry and Chuck. (Feel better now?)

Thanks! Have you tried this? We've been using one of the recipes from my cookbook software. The ones they make at Applebee's have both cointreau and grand marnier in them. Both are orange liqueurs, but I think the grand marnier is sweeter than cointreau. The recipe we've been using just has cointreau, but they aren't as good. I've never seen one that used orange curacau. We'll give it a try. Freezer space is at a premium, and so crushed ice is a problem, but I can make some with my mini-food processor.

I use 1 shot tequila, 1 shot triple sec and 1/2 shot orange curaqau in a large beer glass. I like mine on the rocks, so I add ice, a wedge of lime and fill it up to the top with Paul Newman's lime-aid. Makes a great margarita!